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Born: July 7, 1963

In 2002, Laurie McKenna moved  from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Bisbee, Arizona.  Laurie is a cross disciplinary artist whose work examines class, labor, and abuse of power.  Laurie combines and distills US history, personal experience, and bereft and dispossessed cultural narratives.

Laurie has a BFA in filmmaking from Mass College of Art. She is the Executive Director of the nonprofit arts cooperative Central School Project in Bisbee, Arizona.

EDUCATION

1998   BFA in Filmmaking, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts

1985 -1987   Studio for Interrelated Media, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts

1981-1983   Theatre/Philosophy, Hampshire College, Hadley, Massachusetts

 

BOARDS AND ORGS

2016 - present - Member of  Freeport Mc Mo Ran Community Partnership Panel 

2016 -2021   -  Board member Bisbee Arts and Humanities Council

2016 - 2021   - Liason to Arts and Culture District Steering Committee

PUBLICATIONS

2020  Luther Price  Memorium  Millenium Film Journal Nos 71 72  : Crisis 

2017  feature article and cover of Industrial Work - the Industrial Workers of The World magazine

2017  The Cochise County Historical Journal - Rosa McKay article and artwork

2011  Ampersand Journal, Bisbee, AZ   

2002  Regent Press-  poetry  anthology :  An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind

2003- 2005  Zine: MULE  published by Brodecky Moore, Bisbee Arizona-  poems in 8 issues

RESIDENCIES

1986   Visiting Artist: performance art & film at  Atelier Kramer, Universität Kunst Kassel, Germany

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 April - December The Undesirables  Arizona Historical Society Museum - Resilience Exhibition , Tucson, Az
2019 Feb- March - The Undesirables  Tohono Chul Park Gallery , Tucson, Az

2018  August - The Undesirables  Cornelius Projects, San Pedro CA

2017  July - The Undesirables Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ

2013  Rock Paper Fence,  Migrant Center, Agua Prieta, MX- pop up gallery show

2012  Rock  Paper Fence,  Spirit Gallery, Bisbee, Arizona

2006  Know Your America 2,  Bisbee Clay Gallery, Bisbee, Arizona

2008  Memory of Water  Series of Porcelain Tiles, Bisbee Clay Gallery

Film collaboration- subject/performance

(X)trACTION media collective project: work by 5 artist  screening program, premiered Jan  2022 
Bisbee '17  Directed by Robert Greene

The Undesirables project documented and featured within the non fiction narrative

about the Bisbee deportation.  participated as a re-enactor.

 

 AFFILIATIONS

Dec 2015- present  Executive Director Central School Project Artists Coop and Arts Center

2003-2015  Studio member Central School Project Artist Coop and Arts Center    Bisbee, AZ

2012-2015  President  of Central School Project  and Arts Center    Bisbee, AZ

2003- 2010   Represented by Bisbee Clay Gallery              Bisbee, AZ

 

GRANTS/AWARDS

2022 Aggregate a s officially accepted into the U of A archive, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2021   Project Creosote stART grant for - Arts Foundation of Tucson and Southern Arizona  2021  Awardee The PandemiDiarios on the Border micro-grant program, facilitated by the Confluencenter for
Creative Inquiry at the University of Arizona, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
2021 Bisbee Arts Commission
2019 Bisbee Arts  Commission
2018 Arizona Commission on the Arts- Artist Research and Development grant for video and performance work on The Undesirables.
2017 Bisbee Arts Commission- video film grant for Undesirables 

1998   School Association Trust Fund Award

1985   Outstanding Student Award, Massachusetts College of Art

 

CURATORIAL/ PRODUCER

 Programming Lead at Central School Project 2015- present

Solid State Film and Video Show    1997 Coolidge Corner Theater Brookline Mass

Eventworks 10   Boston MA          1987 -  Co-Producer and Curator of 5 week  (18 events) Media Arts Festival

Artists: Jack Smith - performance and film screenings, Carolee Schneeman; performance, screening and workshop,  Linda Montano: performance and workshop,Larry Wildman Fischer, Howard Zinn, Barbara Krueger- SIM Info Symposium

 

 

SCREENINGS

X)trACTION X)  Aggregate  Harun Farocki Institut  Berlin Germany July 29, 2022

X)trACTION  Aggregate  Cornell Cinema Cornell NY March  7, 2022

 (X)trACTION  Aggregate January 7 2022, Central School Project, Bisbee AZ

Beast- Showcase Fatale Show-  - video  Can't Swim Can't Fly recut   Central School Project Bisbee AZ Nov 2017

Women of Light and Shadow Show-   video - Steel toed Boots recut Central School Project Bisbee AZ  Oct 2016 

16th annual Mix Fest       Steel toed Boots       Anthology Film Archives Boston, MA Jan 2001 
Twilight World: Super-8 Psychotica & Erotica (of the female kind)

No Festival Required  Part 1 at the Phoenix Art  Museum  2002

Modified Arts             407 E. Roosevelt Phoenix, AZ 85004      July 28th, 2002

Robert Beck Memorial Cinema             at Collective Unconscious 145 Ludlow, NYC, NY    Feb 12th, 2002

Cinematheque             Brighton, UK             Oct 25th, 2001

Telluride Experimental Cinema Exposition             Telluride, CO             Oct 2001

Mini-Cine             Shreveport, Louisiana             March 31st, 2001

Experiments in Motion             Bisbee, AZ             October 29, 2000

Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archives             Berkeley, CA             August 22, 2000

Mass College of Art Film Society             Boston, Ma             November 1999

Robert Beck Memorial Cinema NY, NY                         July 3, 1999

Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater            
PS 122 NY, NY             September 18, 1998

Jacques             Boston, MA             December 1998

Coolidge Corner Theatre             Boston, Ma             May 1998

Mobius Gallery    Boston, MA             1998

White Elephant Gallery             Boston, MA             1997

Jacques             Boston, MA             December 1997

Eventworks  Festival Mass College of Art - SCAMP -            Boston, Ma             May 1997

Faces with Eyes -The Middle East            Central Sq , Cambridge Cambridge MA             October 1996

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